From the moment of walking into the hotel, I felt completely at home. The greeting and service was second to none. The room was delightful, the jacuzzi bath was a particular enjoyment.

The breakfast was excellent, a wonderful and varied menu, setting you up for the day. The menu was fantastic, luxurious whisky flavoured porridge to standard full cooked breakfast, I was spoilt for choice.

Anything that was requested was never too much trouble, help with local restaurants, amenities, even drawing a map for a local walk.

I cannot recommend the hotel highly enough. I spent a very enjoyable weekend at one of the best hotels I have stayed at in the Lake District.

We spent one night at The Fisherbeck on the way to Scotland. We had the family room (room 19). It was very large and very clean! An added bonus was the bathtub-nice when you have little ones.
I suppose you could say that the decor was slightly dated-but to be honest, that is not my priority when it comes to selecting a hotel. I would rather have a large, clean room with pleasant staff in quiet surroundings. And this is what we found with The Fisherbeck.
The only fault I could find was the bed as it was rather soft. However, I realise that this is a personal choice.
It is conveniently located and the parking was a nice bonus.
The breakfast in the morning was hot, fresh, tasty, and prepared to a high standard. Our daughters loved their smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.
I would have no problem recommending The Fisherbeck to my friends.

We stayed at the Fisherbeck Hotel for 2 nights in late July 07 and it was definitely the right choice for us. The location is excellent, a genuine 5 minute walk to the lake one way and 5 minute walk into Ambleside the other. Car parking was easy, a definite advantage in this region.

The room was very clean with plenty of space (we were in a superior family room for 89 pounds a night b&b), bathroom well equipped with a good shower and nice toiletries. Breakfast was excellent, lounge areas were nice and the service was great. the owners were friendly in offering advice regarding the beers to try or restaurants to visit, or even lending me his own newspaper, without being overwhelming. We have an 8-month old son and the hotel was very helpful in terms of refrigerating his food, providing a high chair at breakfast etc. One of our main criteria when choosing a guest house was to find somewhere that wasn't so posh that we would feel our baby was inconveniencing anybody and the Fisherbeck fitted the bill.

I read somebody's comment about the service at breakfast being overly formal, but I don't share this impression at all. Someone else said the place was a bit tired, but again I disagree. The TV looked a bit ancient but worked ok, they maybe need to repaint the exterior this winter, but overall I felt everything was clean and comfortable.

A quick word about other places I had considered and noticed when we were there: Wateredge Inn does have a great view and is worth considering, a bit further to walk into town and a large pub as part of the building but it seemed ok. The Gables is the only other one that caught my attention in Ambleside but it is right on the main road and may be a bit noisy on one side. Personally I was glad we chose Ambleside. Bowness seemed a bit too busy for us and other towns such as Grasmere or Coniston may have felt a bit cut off since our baby impedes driving out to restaurants in the evenings.

On reading earlier reviews we were looking forward to stay at the Fisherbeck Hotel, my husband and I stayed 3 nights B&B. As it was a Bank Holiday weekend there was no discount for staying 3 nights as advertised, we paid £110 per night.

On arrival the hotel was in a good location just 5 minutes walk to the centre and externally was well looked after. We stayed in Room 4, which had a balcony but unfortunately this previously must of been used as a smoking area as there was lots of cigarette butts which wasn't very pleasent. These remained there for the whole of our stay! The room itself was well maintained and clean but was slightly dated.

The hotel has an award for its breakfasts which we were excited to sample. The female staff were very friendly and very helpful however a male member of staff was very aloof and stood watching everyone eating there breakfasts which was very off putting. The choice for breakfast was good but the toast was hardly toasted and the soft boiled eggs I ordered were hard, the following day we ordered the full english breakfast which was tasty but served just warm. Disappointing. I wouldnt stay at the Fisherbeck Hotel again as walking around Ambleside there is good choice of B&B's/hotels which we would try next time.